so far this week:

- I don't sleep anymore. Seriously. Rarely can I fall asleep before 4:30am and I usually only sleep until 8:30am. I think it's been too long to blame this on jetlag. It kind of sucks to say the least.

- I've been babysitting. A lot. I don't mind, it's actually kind of fun...until there's pee everywhere and the baby won't stop crying and the dogs won't stop barking and it's just SO loud! Everything eventually works out and everyone is smiling again. And then I get to go home and enjoy the silence. Motherhood is not looking like a fun time. I actually found a book at one of the houses called, "Motherhood is not for Sissies," so of course I had to read it. It was filled with pictures and a quote on each page. Some that I remember are:

"There is a reason it is called labor."

"Laughter is like changing a baby's diaper. It doesn't permanently solve any problems, but it makes things more acceptable for a while."

"That million dollar smile doesn't come cheap."

"I figure if the kids are alive at the end of the day, I've done my job."

And the last page read:

"And if all else fails, pray."

Honest to goodness, I have prayed that the baby would finally fall asleep at nap time. The crying was starting to make me wonder if there was actually something wrong. There wasn't. Just tired.

- My mom has been baking Christmas cookies all week. Every night the house smells like some new treat. I don't mind. She made peanut butter cups. Holy goodness!

- I went to my old high school's band concert. One of the songs they played had a bit of that song "Sleigh Ride" in it. As I was listening, this got whispered in my ear:

"Hey, what does this song remind you of?"
"...Christmas?"
"Hahaha, noo, Elf!"
"Ah, how did I not catch that?!"

Yeah, I was really upset with myself over that one. But after it was said, I couldn't stop picturing scenes from that part of Elf!

- I have been playing Words with Friends with a bunch of people. I was doing pretty good but the tables have turned. I don't like it. I also don't like that I can find really good German words to play!

- I'm convinced that my cat is the Grinch's helper. He chewed through the wire of the Christmas Tree lights. The tree ornaments aren't on the tree because he takes them off as soon as they go on. Candy canes have been found on the floor...and in the his mouth. Also, the he took down some of the window lights because, hey, that looked like fun.

- The distribution of presents may not occur in the Rice house on Christmas morning. My mom and I took too long to order some of the gifts so we're just printing out pictures of what we got everyone and putting them in a box. When the presents get here, they get here. The fact that presents are coming is pretty great by itself. After taking my mom to a Relief Society activity in New York, I didn't think presents would be given this year at all. Someone said something about kids getting three presents on Christmas because Jesus only received three presents and why do we deserve more than him? Well, that was just a great thing for my mom to hear. That night I remember I asked her if she did any Christmas shopping while we were there in New York. She said, "Jesus only got three presents. Why do we need any?" Awesoooome.

- I've come to realize that I can quote almost every line to Matilda, Madeline and Elf. I was aware that I was pretty great at quoting Elf but I didn't realize how much I knew of Matilda and Madeline until I watched them again. I surprised myself! And, yes, I watched them recently. I found all of my childhood movies! Of course I watched them!

- My dad hit a car last night. Only the mirror, nothing severe. When explaining what happened to my mom, she said, "You drive just like Emily! Riding the curb!" It's okay, Papa Bear, I have yet to crash. That was a compliment in disguise.

- I went out the living room window today to avoid accidentally letting the cat out the door. The patio table is right outside the window. It's not like I climbed out the window, walked around, then came back in. I just opened the window, sat out on the window sill a bit to grab what I needed and then climbed back in and landed on the couch. I did this while my dad was explaining how things were back in his day. 25 minutes later he is complaining the cat moved the window decoration to the other side of the window. I asked if he really didn't notice me open the window and go outside. He said 'no'. What? He was sitting right there!

- We had a late night cookie decorating session. I think we did pretty good! I had a problem keeping the icing in the bowls. Messy messy!